


april fools---not

by datleggy



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: April Fools' Day, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Misunderstandings, Protective Athena, Protective Maddie Buckley, guilty!team, hurt!buck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:16:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23421559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/datleggy/pseuds/datleggy
Summary: The team think Buck is playing an April Fools joke on them.He's not.disclaimer: this was supposed to be funny but it just turned out kinda mean---my bad.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 626





	april fools---not

The thing is, he doesn’t realize he’s been hurt. Later, he’ll blame it on the adrenaline pumping through his veins during the call. 

Not to mention his overcoat is heavy and thick and he doesn’t feel the warm, gradual spread of blood across his abdomen. It’s been a long day—mostly thanks to it being April first, or better known as, April Fool’s day, the day when idiots come out of the woodwork and play not so harmless pranks on unsuspecting friends, family and coworkers. 

It’s part of the reason Buck decides to keep his heavy jacket on when they get back from their latest call; he’s tired of taking it off, hanging it up, only to have to run to fetch it and put it back on fifteen minutes later, when the alarm sounds. 

But eventually, after it’s been nearly an entire hour of pure silence from the alarm, Buck decides maybe it’s safe to get comfortable. It is nearing the end of his shift, after all. 

So he heads to the locker room, stumbling a bit on his way there, though he attributes the clumsiness to being exhausted from so many calls, and removes his jacket and overalls. Buck winces, but it’s not due to a pulled muscle. “Ow, what the hell—” he looks down and pauses, blinking several times when he sees the giant splatter of dark red across his white undershirt. “Jesus!” He’d snagged his uniform on something sharp earlier, on their last call, but it had only stung for a second, and then he’d carried on just fine. “Shit.” 

Buck hesitantly lifts his shirt—or at least, he attempts to—the blood has dried up and the cotton material is stuck to his wound. Painfully stuck. He tries one more time before the pain has him trembling, and finally he gives up. He needs help. 

He slowly limps to the lounge area, where the team is relaxing on the couches—Chim and Hen are playing video games on the big screen, Eddie’s watching them with a giant bowl of popcorn on his lap, and Bobby’s reading a book, occasionally glancing up and cheering for whoever is winning. 

“Hey, so, I think I need to go to the hospital.” He announces awkwardly, to the room. Buck’s not sure how else to say ‘I got a gaping hole on my side like an hour ago but my dumb ass only just realized five minutes ago and I have lost _so much blood_ everything is starting to get blurry’. 

“That is…” Hen blinks. “That is seriously good fake blood, where did you get that? It actually looks _real_.” she awes. 

Chimney snorts. “Oh man, it really does, you almost got me! I was about to get your ass into the rig, dude!” 

Eddie takes a huge breath of relief, and then turns to his best friend, irritated, “Buck, man, that is _not_ a cool prank, I dropped my popcorn.” There are kernels all over the floor now. Eddie stands up and goes to closet to retrieve the broom and dustpan. “You know, you should be the one who cleans up, freaking me out like that.” 

Buck stares at them blankly. Yeah, he’s definitely lost too much blood. His tongue is starting to feel numb. “No, seriously. This is real.” he insists, wrapping an arm around his midsection. Standing upright is getting harder to manage. 

Bobby raises a brow. “Buck, Eddie’s right, this isn’t funny, cut it out and get changed before I get mad. We’ve dealt with enough asinine pranks today to last a lifetime.” He doesn’t like getting serious with the kid, but sometimes Buck can be a special brand of immature and needs just a little sense knocked into him. 

“No, really, I think—” 

“Buck, enough, no one’s buying it.” Bobby uses his most firm ‘Captain’ tone, crossing his arms over his chest. “It’s been a long day, if I need to warn you one more time I—Buck?” Bobby sits up suddenly, alarmed when Buck suddenly, unprompted, starts heaving, bent at the waist, throwing his lunch up all over the floor. 

Buck groans, now wrapping both arms around his belly in pain. “Can someone _please_ take me to the hospital already?” 

_____________________________________________________

“A prank? You all saw a man bleeding out in front of you, pale as a ghost, and ya’ll thought that was a _prank_?” Athena chastises the 118, shaking her head in disappointment. “I am ashamed of all of you, and if when Buck wakes up he decides not to forgive any of you, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.” 

Maddie, who’s standing next to the Lieutenant nods angrily in agreement, “I know for a fact Buck is going to forgive you all, because that’s just who he is, but know that you are all on _very_ thin ice with me.” 

Chimney looks down at his lap, guilty, but doesn’t try to defend himself. Hearing Buck, who he’s always thought of as a little brother, literally plead for their help after being denied, and even mocked, several times in a row, by the whole team—that’s going to stick with him for a very long time. 

They all feel like absolute shit, and though Buck is going to make a full recovery, according to the surgeon, who gave him a blood transfusion to replace all the blood he’d lost, it doesn’t make them feel any less awful. 

“Patient’s ready for visitors, but only for a little while, he needs to rest up.” the doctor tells them, a few moments later. 

“Oh Buck.” Maddie rushes into the room and stands on one side of his bed, with Athena taking up the other side. 

“How’re you feeling, honey?” Athena furrows her brow when Buck grimaces in pain before replying. 

“Doc said I’ll be fine.” 

“Not what I asked.” Athena runs a soothing, motherly hand and smooths down Buck’s unruly bedhead. 

Buck sighs softly, leaning into the touch. “Achy.” he says, truthfully. Absolutely everything hurts right now. “Where is everybody?” 

Maddie frowns. “They’re in timeout, in the waiting area.” 

“What, why?” 

Athena gives him an incredulous look. “Buck, those fools nearly let you bleed out at the fire station a few hours ago.” 

Buck shakes his head. “It’s April Fools, of course they thought I was playing a prank.” he defends them. “Anyone would.” 

Maddie wants to be mad and yell at him, tell him he forgives too easily, but her baby brother won’t stop looking at the door, like he’s hoping the 118 are hiding behind there, ready to pop out any minute now. She sighs, rolling her eyes, though she leans down to kiss Buck on the forehead once before heading to the waiting room to get the crew. 

They all look up, desperate for news, when they see her walk over. 

They all immediately talk over one another, “Is he ok?” “How is he?” “Is everything ok?” 

She holds up a hand for them to hush up. “He’s not great, but he’ll live. He wants to see you guys. C’mon.” she waves them over, resigned.

She turns around one more time and glares at all of them before they can enter the room. “He’s already forgiven you, just FYI, but if I don’t hear some seriously heartfelt apologies the second we get in there…” she lets the threat hang in the air a moment before the looks of utter guilt and remorse on their faces satisfies her. “Ok then.”


End file.
